Foreword
Mr. Takahiro Tsuda,
Director,
Multilateral Banks Division,
International Bureau
Ministry of Finance, Japan
Bernice Van Bronkhorst
Former Global Director for
Urban, Resilience and
Land Global Practice
World Bank
The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) has long been a beacon of hope and action for communities grappling with the growing risks posed by disasters and climate change. As we reflect on the achievements of the past year and look ahead to the future, we are reminded of the essential role that GFDRR plays in building a safer, more resilient world for all by not only restoring but also improving infrastructure and systems to better withstand future shocks (“building back better”).
The demand for GFDRR’s expertise and support has never been greater. Disasters are becoming more frequent and severe, fueled by climate change, rapid urbanization, and intersecting crises. Communities worldwide, especially the most vulnerable, face heightened risks to their safety, livelihoods, and development prospects. In response, GFDRR has consistently demonstrated its ability to meet this challenge, serving as a trusted partner in advancing disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation.
FY24 marked an important year for GFDRR as it reached a critical juncture in the implementation of its 2021–2025 strategy. Over this period, GFDRR continued to deliver tangible, lasting results. It has informed the design and implementation of nature-based solutions that benefit millions of people, supported the construction of safer school infrastructure that protects the education of millions of children, and strengthened the financial preparedness of countries to respond to shocks. The impact of these efforts is clear: resilient infrastructure, disaster financing, and emergency preparedness are transforming lives and reducing vulnerabilities in the world’s most fragile and exposed communities.
This progress would not have been possible without the commitment and collaboration of our partners. The insights and guidance shared by GFDRR’s partners have been invaluable in steering the facility’s course. The external mid-term evaluation of GFDRR’s Umbrella structure underscored the relevance of its mission, the efficiency of its operations, and its capacity to channel donor contributions effectively. These findings affirm that GFDRR is well-positioned to achieve even greater impact in the years ahead.
GFDRR’s work is especially critical for International Development Association (IDA) countries, where vulnerabilities are often the greatest and development gains are at the highest risk of being reversed by disasters. By focusing its efforts on IDA countries, GFDRR helps protect hard-won development progress, reduce poverty, and build sustainable resilience where it matters most.
As we look to the future, we recognize that the road ahead is marked by growing challenges but also immense opportunity. The next strategy period from 2026–2030 will be defined by a renewed ambition to scale measurable impact, align with international frameworks such as the Sendai Framework, the Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals, and deepen partnerships that drive innovation and resource mobilization.
Moving forward, we must continue to prioritize inclusive disaster risk management, ensuring that the voices and needs of the most vulnerable, including marginalized communities and those affected by fragility, conflict, and violence, are at the heart of our efforts. The challenges are formidable, but with collective action, we can overcome them. By enhancing accountability, strengthening results reporting, and fostering collaboration, GFDRR can continue to demonstrate its effectiveness and deliver real-world impact where it matters most.
We thank all of GFDRR’s partners and stakeholders for their steadfast support. Your dedication and contributions are crucial to shaping a future where communities are safer, more resilient, and better prepared to face an uncertain world. Together, we have the power to turn ambition into action and ensure that no one is left behind.
Introduction: Strengthening Disaster Resilience in an Uncertain World
Niels Holm-Nielsen
GFDRR Practice Manager
Reflecting on the past year, the urgency of building resilient communities and systems has never been clearer. The world continues to face unprecedented challenges, from the intensifying impacts of climate change to the growing frequency and severity of disasters. Against this backdrop, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) remains committed to helping vulnerable countries prepare for, mitigate, and recover from disaster risks.
This year marked a major milestone in advancing our mission. We completed our first external strategic evaluation of the GFDRR Umbrella of Trust Funds, which affirmed the relevance of our objectives and design, highlighted our governance and management as efficient and effective, and recognized the substantial progress we have made against our objectives. The evaluation also offered valuable recommendations that we are implementing. We are establishing a stronger foundation for monitoring and reporting the tangible impacts of our disaster-risk-reduction and climate-resilience efforts. This will be a fundamental part of our 2030 strategy. With the implementation of our Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Framework, we have enhanced accountability and improved our ability to track the impact of our grant portfolio. This annual report illustrates how our work has informed more than $5 billion in World Bank development financing, enabling countries to mainstream disaster risk management (DRM), increase climate resilience, and enhance financial preparedness. Each dollar in grant support informs more than $100 of World Bank DRM financing.
Key Achievements: Expanding Impact across Borders
In close collaboration with country teams and global partners, we supported 38 government-led projects in 31 countries. These projects promote resilience through innovative approaches, such as nature-based solutions (NBS), while integrating gender and inclusion as core elements to ensure that benefits reach the most vulnerable populations. Our approach to gender and inclusion has evolved to prioritize these dimensions across all aspects of our work.
NBS have emerged as effective, cost-efficient measures to address challenges that climate-related disasters and loss of natural ecosystems pose. GFDRR’s work in this area had supported $2.5 billion in investments including NBS across 45 projects over 2021–24. Through these efforts, we are not only protecting communities from climate impacts, but also enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem health.
Our alignment with the Sendai Framework continues to guide our efforts toward global disaster risk reduction priorities. GFDRR is also contributing to the World Bank’s mission to increase resilience in countries eligible for financing from the International Development Association (IDA), providing them with targeted support. This enables them to take advantage of IDA financing for climate resilience purposes and, in turn, contribute to meeting IDA’s climate adaptation and DRM commitments. These efforts ensure that IDA-eligible countries have the necessary tools, data, and policy frameworks to build back better after disasters and reduce future risk, directly contributing to IDA’s overarching goal of safeguarding development outcomes in the world’s most vulnerable nations.
Our partnerships have been essential to these accomplishments. By working alongside governments, multilateral development banks, multilateral organizations, and academia, we have continued to support the mainstreaming of DRM practices into key development planning, fostering a more disaster-resilient future for millions.
Looking Forward: A Vision for the Future
Although we have made significant progress, the year has not been without its challenges. Extreme adverse natural events and conflict situations, ongoing recovery from the pandemic, and economic uncertainties have reduced the resilience of many communities. GFDRR remains adaptive and responsive, continuing to deliver critical support while recognizing that there is still much work to be done.
In fiscal year 2025, GFDRR will focus on continuing to expand NBS as a key strategy for climate resilience and disaster risk reduction. We will help countries expand NBS such as mangrove restoration, flood-control wetlands, and urban green spaces, integrating them into development planning to protect communities and enhance biodiversity. We will also focus on consolidating our work on resilient infrastructure, with an emphasis on energy and transportation, while advancing the disaster–fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) nexus as one of our critical thematic programs.
Through technical assistance, financing, and policy support, we aim to ensure that these solutions deliver long-term benefits to people while enhancing the disaster resilience of infrastructure and addressing the complex challenges at the intersection of disaster in contexts of FCV. Taking advantage of the increase in demand from governments around the world in the context of the introduction of the World Bank Group’s expanded Crisis Preparedness and Response Toolkit, we will focus on increasing countries’ capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. This includes expanding early warning systems to benefit more than 200 million people by 2030 and promoting innovative financial instruments, alongside Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Options (Cat DDOs), to enhance financial resilience and improve DRM systems. Through innovation and collaboration with global and national partners, we aim to address the growing challenges that climate change and disasters pose.
A Collective Effort for Resilience
None of this progress would have been possible without the dedication and commitment of our donors, partners, and staff, who have worked tirelessly to advance disaster risk reduction globally. As we reflect on this year’s achievements, we are reminded of the collective effort required to build a more resilient world. We look forward to continuing this vital work together in the year ahead.
Executive Summary
The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is a multi-donor partnership that supports low- and middle-income countries to understand, manage, and reduce their risks from natural hazards and climate change. This annual report covers the activities and results of GFDRR’s Umbrella Program for fiscal year 2024, which consists of the anchor Multi-Donor Trust Fund and six Associated Trust Funds.
GFDRR’s portfolio continued to grow during fiscal year 2024. GFDRR implemented 263 grants during the year, across 78 countries. At the end of fiscal year 2024, GFDRR maintained a portfolio of 220 active grants of $95 million, including 116 grants ($35.4 million) approved during the fiscal year.
Seventy- one grants closed during the year. GFDRR’s grants remained highly relevant to its goals. Grants supported improved disaster risk management (DRM) across critical natural hazards, including floods, cyclones, landslides, earthquakes, drought, and extreme heat. The grants covered all regions where the World Bank operates. The largest share of active grants was for the Africa region, which accounted for 26 percent of active funding (66 grants), followed by East Asia and the Pacific (13 percent, 46 grants), Europe and Central Asia (11 percent, 22 grants), Latin America and the Caribbean (9 percent, 31 grants), and South Asia (8 percent, 19 grants). A smaller proportion of active funding supported the Middle East and Northern Africa (2 percent, 11 grants); 31 percent of active funding (25 grants) was awarded to support global technical lines of work and regional activities. All GFDRR grants are aligned with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and with GFDRR’s four priority areas.
Impact Stories and IDA Support
In the Philippines, GFDRR supported the PlanSmart digital application— which automates the development of disaster recovery and reconstruction plans using risk and hazard data—which has enabled 153 local governments to prepare recovery plans. In addition, over 2,300 officials were trained in risk- informed recovery planning. In Romania, upgraded fire stations in five localities now meet seismic and building codes, improving emergency services for over 920,000 people and providing inclusive facilities for more than 600 emergency personnel.
GFDRR has also been instrumental in supporting countries eligible for International Development Association (IDA) assistance, to strengthen DRM and climate resilience. In fiscal year 2024, it approved 62 grants totaling $16.8 million in 44 countries, supporting efforts such as improved DRM policies in Liberia, early warning systems (EWS) in Haiti, drought response in Zambia, conflict-informed recovery in Ethiopia, institutional coordination for DRM in Cambodia, and urban resilience in Vanuatu. In Senegal, more than 433 resilient homes have been built in Saint-Louis, providing resilient housing for up to 15,000 people who had previously lived in areas vulnerable to coastal erosion and flooding with designs meeting universal access standards to accommodate people with disabilities.
Priorities and Cross-Cutting Areas
This annual report provides an overview of GFDRR’s activities across its priorities and cross-cutting areas, including detailed examples. Forty-five percent of grants support Risk-Informed Decision- Making (Priority 1), 88 percent support Reducing Risk and Mainstreaming DRM (Priority 2), 9 percent support Financial Preparedness to Manage Disaster and Climate Shocks (Priority 3), and 38 percent support Disaster Preparedness and Resilient Recovery (Priority 4). GFDRR implements these priorities emphasizing its cross-cutting areas. Of those grants that closed during the year, 69 percent were gender informed, 77 percent supported resilience to climate change, and 23 percent of grants were in fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV)- affected situations. The examples that follow are representative of the many instances of GFDRR’s work in these areas.
Priority 1: Risk-Informed Decision-Making aims to equip countries and communities with accessible risk information to improve decision-making in DRM and climate change adaptation. Following Morocco’s 2023 earthquake, a World Bank technical team used GFDRR’s Global Rapid Post-Disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) methodology to rapidly estimate direct physical damage at a lower cost than traditional methods. The results informed Morocco’s $11.8 billion recovery plan and enabled the swift mobilization of over $300 million in disaster risk financing from development partners, including the World Bank.
Priority 2: Reducing Risk and Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management focuses on reducing climate and disaster risks by strengthening institutions, regulations, and infrastructure while integrating DRM across sectors. This includes enhancing urban and rural resilience, improving regulatory frameworks, and ensuring inclusive and equitable solutions. In Côte d’Ivoire, the City Resilience Program’s partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is supporting the design of a public-private partnership to develop resilient solid waste management facilities, potentially serving 1.35 million people in Abidjan and two secondary cities. In Rwanda, GFDRR’s technical assessments have guided investments in Kigali’s transport infrastructure resilience, focusing on high-risk areas and strengthening local capacity. Engagement with private bus operators has also begun to incorporate business continuity planning into their operations.
Priority 3: Financial Preparedness to Manage Disaster and Climate Shocks aims to strengthen countries’ resilience by integrating disaster risk reduction and climate strategies into robust financing mechanisms. This involves developing innovative financial tools and using sound, context-specific approaches to quantify risk for better decision-making. In Malawi, the World Bank approved a $57.6 million Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (Cat DDO) as part of a resilience-focused contingency financing operation, supported by GFDRR. Shortly after approval, the Cat DDO was activated following a March 2024 food crisis declaration, providing the government with immediate funds for a swift response.
Priority 4: Disaster Preparedness and Resilient Recovery focuses on enhancing community and government readiness through improved access to hydrometeorological (hydromet) data, EWS, stronger emergency response capacity, and resilient recovery efforts. This includes retrofitting infrastructure and promoting inclusive, gender-responsive designs. In Bhutan, GFDRR’s support to the country to strengthen hydromet systems led to the development of an Agrometeorological Decision Support System that uses machine learning to generate weather-based crop advisories, now benefiting approximately 43,270 people across 11 gewogs, or groups of villages.
Cross-Cutting Priority Area: Addressing the Disaster–Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) Nexus aims to integrate DRM into recovery and preparedness efforts in FCV-affected contexts, ensuring that operations are sensitive to the complexities of these situations. In Yemen, GFDRR supported World Bank technical teams to adapt damage and needs assessment methodologies to account for FCV dynamics, such as internal displacement and food insecurity. This approach informed recovery efforts following Cyclone Tej in 2023, highlighting the need to prioritize internally displaced persons.
Cross-Cutting Priority Area: Inclusive Disaster Risk Management and Gender Equality aims to ensure that disaster risk reduction efforts are inclusive, giving marginalized groups a greater voice in DRM activities for stronger, more equitable outcomes. In Indonesia, GFDRR’s analytical work has helped the government better address the needs of vulnerable populations by highlighting the importance of standardized, disaggregated data collection at the local level. These findings have informed the country’s national program for inclusive disaster resilience at the village level and the design of the $400 million World Bank–supported National Urban Flood Resilience Project.
GFDRR’s Impact
GFDRR grants achieve impact in part by improving the quality of the World Bank’s development finance. In fiscal year 2024, the World Bank approved 38 projects informed by GFDRR, with financing of $5.12 billion. Thirty-six percent of this finance was for countries eligible for support under the IDA. GFDRR’s support of the World Bank’s climate change adaptation finance is significant, with GFDRR-informed projects covering more than a quarter of all the World Bank’s climate change adaptation finance. GFDRR provides significant leverage, in fiscal year 2024 informing finance of 158 times its grant disbursements.
GFDRR monitors and evaluates its results under its Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) framework. In fiscal year 2024, this included the completion of an independent evaluation that assessed GFDRR’s progress in implementing its 2021-25 strategy and the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of GFDRR activities. GFDRR is implementing the recommendations of the evaluation. The annual report describes how GFDRR is achieving its objectives, reporting on results from closed grants and its results framework. This annual report also includes a summary of results achieved by GFDRR- informed projects that were completed and evaluated in fiscal year 2024—26 of the 37 evaluated informed projects exceeded or achieved the indicator targets related to GFDRR grants, while another 7 partially achieved the indicator targets.
GFDRR’s knowledge management, communications, and partnerships have bolstered awareness, strengthened collaboration, and deepened the facility’s development impacts. GFDRR’s external website generated 360,000 page views, there were 12,764 readers of its 18 blogs, it published 30 reports and held 45 events, including the Understanding Risk Global Forum with more than 1,700 onsite attendees from 135 countries. GFDRR continues to work closely with partners, including United Nations agencies and bilateral and multilateral partners, to support implementation of international agreements, foster technical agendas, and support research and innovation. It also partners with local civil society organizations (CSOs) to support their capacity-building efforts, and with the private sector.
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Fiscal Year 2024
Stories of Impact
A closer look at how GFDRR is contributing to a more resilient future.
EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC
In Focus Enabling Rapid Post-Disaster Planning and Financing in the Philippines
Displacing more than 4 million people from their homes and claiming the lives of more than 5,000 in the Philippines, Typhoon Haiyan, which hit parts of the archipelago in 2013, served as a wake-up call about the need to streamline recovery planning and ensure rapid access to post-disaster financing in one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. In the days and weeks after the typhoon, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded, national and local governments faced prolonged delays as they strove to develop and implement recovery and reconstruction plans while also seeking the funding needed to implement those plans.
Determined to safeguard lives and livelihoods in the aftermath of disasters, the Philippines has rapidly accelerated its efforts to build the capacity and infrastructure to recover and rebuild faster and more efficiently in the decade since that storm. Support from GFDRR has enabled the country to make tremendous progress on that front—bringing the Philippines ever closer to its vision of a more resilient future through its Ready to Rebuild program.
EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
In Focus Building Resilient, Inclusive Infrastructure in Romania
In the more than four decades since a 1977 earthquake caused widespread devastation in its capital of Bucharest and across the country, Romania has made tremendous headway in strengthening DRM such that the country is now fast emerging as a model for other countries to follow. A recent workshop, supported by GFDRR, enabled representatives of six European and Central Asian countries to learn firsthand about Romania’s experience modernizing its approach to DRM.
Yet as the Romanian government recognizes in its 2024–35 National Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy, there is much more to be done to safeguard lives and livelihoods in the face of disasters. Among the most urgent resilience challenges facing the country is that much of its vital infrastructure remains highly vulnerable to seismic risk and other natural hazards, in part because the country is dotted with public buildings constructed before 1980 that have not been modified to meet current seismic and building codes.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
In Focus Advancing Policy and Institutional Reforms for a Resilient Guatemala
From earthquakes to landslides to volcanic eruptions, devastating natural hazards are common in Guatemala, threatening to reverse its hard-won development gains. For example, in 2020, hurricanes Eta and Iota caused infrastructure-related losses equivalent to 0.6 percent of the country’s GDP and agricultural losses of about 0.2 percent of GDP.
Determined to chart a brighter future for the 17.6 million Guatemalans, the government of Guatemala continues to put DRM and resilience at the top of its development agenda. GFDRR remains a steadfast partner in those efforts, working closely with key ministries and the lead DRM agency (the National Coordination for Disaster Reduction) to increase Guatemala’s resilience. A recent priority for GFDRR has been helping the government strengthen its legal, policy, and institutional framework for DRM.
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
In Focus Understanding and Tackling Resilience Challenges in Algeria
On October 10, 1980, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake destroyed the town of El Asnam (known today as Chlef) in Algeria, killing several thousand people and leading to considerable economic losses. Three hours later, a magnitude 6.3 aftershock followed, making it one of the largest and deadliest earthquakes ever recorded in Algeria. Twenty-three years later, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook the country again and caused devastating damage in five provinces in the north-central region.
Disasters like these are far from rare in Algeria. Be it earthquakes, forest fires, or floods, Algeria has experienced many disasters and has learned valuable lessons from them. The Algerian government estimates that annual spending over the past 15 years to respond to floods, earthquakes, and forest fires averages approximately $255 million (DZD 35.14 billion), with about 70 percent spent on floods. Aware of the country’s growing disaster risk in the context of urbanization and climate change, the government has adopted numerous policies, regulations, and plans that demonstrate its commitment to prepare for, manage, and mitigate the impacts of disasters. It is equally aware that the journey to disaster resilience is far from over and that much remains to be done.
SOUTH ASIA
In Focus Bolstering Flood Resilience in India
Straddling the city of Surat in India’s Gujarat state, the Tapi River provides the main source of fresh drinking water and irrigation for the more than 6.5 million people who call the metropolis home. Yet even as the river sustains lives and livelihoods in India’s eighth largest city, Surat’s geographic location along the Tapi also means that its residents face heightened flood risk, particularly when heavy rainfall leads to an emergency release of water from the upstream Ukai Dam into the river.
With the support of GFDRR, the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), which is responsible for the administration of the city, has been embarking on an ambitious effort to mitigate flood risk in Surat. GFDRR’s engagement has been focused on supporting analytical work, encompassing hydrological studies and hydraulic modeling, which has provided SMC with a much deeper understanding of the costs, benefits, gaps, and trade-offs among a range of flood risk mitigation interventions under consideration as part of the Tapi Riverfront Rejuvenation Project (TRRP). TRRP is an SMC initiative to promote resilient, holistic development along the Tapi River.
AFRICA
In Focus Supporting Locally Led Resilience Building in Senegal
Determined to usher in a brighter future for its roughly 18 million citizens, Senegal has recently unveiled a development plan designed to set it on a path toward realizing its full social and economic potential by 2050. As Senegal strives to realize those ambitions, the government recognizes that increasing the country’s resilience to natural hazards and climate change will be critical to that effort. In the last four decades, droughts, floods, and sea-level rise, among other natural hazards, have affected the lives and livelihoods of at least 5 million people across Senegal.
Standing with Senegal in realizing its development ambitions, GFDRR has been supporting long-term resilience building in the country, including in two of its largest cities, Saint-Louis and the capital of Dakar.
After severe storm surges in 2017 and 2018 displaced hundreds of people from northwest Senegal, including in the World Heritage site of Saint-Louis, GFDRR assistance under the auspices of the Saint-Louis Emergency Recovery and Resilience Project (SERRP) facilitated the urgent relocation of 1,800 people. SERRP has received $80 million in financing from the International Development Association (IDA).
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GFDRR’s Support
of the International
Development Association (IDA)
A deep dive into GFDRR’s support for resilience building in IDA-eligible
countries across the globe.
Countries that the International Development Association (IDA) supports are highly vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate and intensifying disaster risk. It is estimated that increasing the resilience of investments in IDA-eligible countries will add about 25 to 30 percent to the costs of development, with the largest increase required in Sub-Saharan Africa and small island states. Recognizing this, the most recent IDA replenishment (IDA20) continues to include climate change as a special theme, emphasizing adaptation and disasters. IDA20 notes that climate change impacts continue to undermine development outcomes, with disproportionate impacts on the poorest and most vulnerable IDA- eligible countries, and that more intense and frequent storms are expected to contribute to risks of internal displacement and international migration.
GFDRR has been instrumental in supporting the resilience-building efforts of IDA-eligible countries and has provided valuable technical expertise and funding to help World Bank teams support their government counterparts prepare and expand the pipeline of projects for IDA operations to enhance disaster risk management (DRM) and climate resilience. Those IDA activities are designed to ensure that IDA-eligible countries have adequate tools and data to inform their risk-reduction investments and programs and to build back better and stronger after disasters. This section highlights how new and past GFDRR grants are contributing to improved disaster resilience in IDA-eligible countries.
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Priorities and
Cross-Cutting Areas
GFDRR’s engagements across its priorities and cross-cutting areas
contribute to the facility’s strategic objectives and the Sendai
Framework.
PRIORITY 1
The objective of this priority area is to ensure that countries and communities have access to the information they need to make risk-informed decisions, to shift from understanding risk to managing risk, and to promote and improve policies for effective decision-making in disaster risk management (DRM) and climate change adaptation. This process requires increasing the availability of risk information and ensuring that it remains accessible over time. In turn, there is a need to consider risk data through its life cycle—with provision for local capacity to conduct updates and replicate risk evaluations that are appropriate and affordable.
Introduction
Data and analytics serve as the cornerstone of effective risk management, offering crucial insights that guide decision-making processes to mitigate the adverse impacts of disasters. By harnessing data on hazards, exposure, and vulnerability and using analytics to understand those data, policymakers and practitioners can predict potential impacts of hazards, assess vulnerabilities, and allocate resources more efficiently to make evidence-based decisions for DRM and climate adaptation. The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) has a long record of investing in cutting-edge technology, analytics, and economic analysis, which has contributed to its position as a global leader in disaster risk assessment and management. However, lower-income countries often face significant challenges in using this data-driven approach, including limited access to high-quality and timely data, inadequate technological infrastructure to process and analyze large data sets, and a scarcity of skilled personnel to interpret data for informed decision-making.
GFDRR is actively working to address these challenges by focusing on enhancing data accessibility and quality through open-access initiatives, creating global public goods, bolstering technological infrastructure for better data collection and analysis, and building local capacity through training and knowledge sharing. The facility is also pioneering efforts to integrate cutting-edge technology—such as satellite imagery, artificial intelligence and machine learning, analytics, and economic analysis—to offer counterparts advanced, yet usable, risk assessment capabilities. Moreover, GFDRR’s collaboration with international partners can be used to leverage technical expertise and financial support to enable the expansion of its support.
In Focus Stories
PRIORITY 2
The objective of this priority area is to reduce climate and disaster risks by strengthening relevant institutions, regulations, and infrastructure; enhancing urban and rural resilience and mainstreaming DRM across sectors. This will be accomplished by integrating climate change and DRM practices into the operations and maintenance of existing or retrofitted infrastructure while simultaneously building capacity for enhanced regulatory frameworks and compliance mechanisms to mitigate vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change. By actively integrating inclusive DRM and gender equality into these efforts, activities will also lead to more-effective, moreequitable solutions in reducing climate and disaster risks.
Introduction
Reducing risk and mainstreaming DRM are crucial for low- and middle-income countries and small island developing states, which are disproportionately affected by climate change and natural hazards. These countries typically have fewer resources to manage and recover from disasters, making the impacts of such events more devastating. By implementing robust disaster-risk-reduction measures, these impacts can be substantially lessened, saving lives, protecting economic progress, conserving natural resources, expediting recovery efforts, and driving sustainable development.
GFDRR focuses on boosting the resilience of the built environment—including essential infrastructure and services such as transportation, energy, water, sanitation, and health systems—by improving building regulations and infrastructure design standards and reinforcing infrastructure assets such as schools and homes against disasters. In these sectors, GFDRR works to assess asset exposure and vulnerability, analyze system performance under extreme events, and prioritize investments to strengthen resilience. Additional efforts include enhancing design standards and improving the operations and maintenance of infrastructure to ensure continued delivery of resilient services.
In parallel, it promotes the use of nature-based solutions (NBS) as cost-effective strategies to reduce natural hazard risks and bolster climate resilience while yielding benefits for biodiversity, communities, and local economies. Many GFDRR initiatives are implemented in urban areas, which are home to more than half of the global population; these urban populations are expanding, especially in low- and lower middle-income countries. Although cities drive economic growth, they are also more vulnerable to disaster and climate change and often do not have adequate tools to confront these challenges. GFDRR addresses urbanization by helping cities perform risk assessments, conduct risk-informed land-use planning, design resilient infrastructure systems, and determine opportunities for private sector engagement and financing, among others.
In Focus Stories
PRIORITY 3
The objective of this priority area is to increase the resilience of countries to disaster and climate risks by integrating disaster risk reduction and climate strategies into robust risk financing mechanisms. This priority area covers two pillars: develop innovative disaster and climate resilience finance mechanisms that promote the use of risk reduction incentives and use robust, technically sound, context-specific approaches to quantify disaster risk for development of risk-reduction systems and decision-making.
Introduction
Low- and lower-middle-income countries face significant economic impacts and fiscal challenges from increasing natural hazards exacerbated by climate change. This, in turn, contributes to disaster risk and materializes as an increase in damage to private and public assets, such as buildings, roads, railways, and powerlines, affecting households and businesses, interrupting economic activity, and ultimately becoming liabilities on government balance sheets and decreasing government revenue. These impacts eventually limit long-term growth and economic development and hamper efforts to reduce poverty and build shared prosperity.
As a result, demand for financial and fiscal planning to address these risks has increased. GFDRR helps governments with overall financial and fiscal management of disaster- and climate-related risks, highlighting the importance of prearranging financial resources to mitigate the impact of disasters on fiscal balance and debt sustainability and helping governments ensure availability of financing after disasters. Pairing disaster risk reduction approaches with disaster and climate risk financing can dramatically reduce the potential economic and social impacts of disasters, contributing to long-term development and poverty-reduction goals. Aligned to its 2021–25 strategy, GFDRR continues to support disaster risk reduction financial preparedness programs and governance systems as part of the broader DRM framework. This approach provides opportunities to engage countries in disaster risk and climate adaptation financing with analytics, capacity building, and innovative financing mechanisms.
In Focus Story
PRIORITY 4
The objective of this priority area is to increase community and government preparedness by increasing access to hydrometeorological (hydromet) data and early warning systems (EWS), increasing emergency response capacity, and supporting resilient recovery. This includes retrofitting damaged or weak infrastructure and improving engineering designs for more-resilient assets with a strong focus on promoting gender equality and inclusion throughout the process.
Introduction
Climate change is increasing the intensity of climatic hazards, resulting in disastrous impacts on lives and livelihoods. Predicting geological hazards continues to be a challenge. During the pandemic, many countries faced compound shocks including simultaneous health emergencies, natural hazards, and conflicts, highlighting the importance of being prepared and building resilience.
Aligned with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and its strategic objectives, in fiscal year 2024, in close coordination with the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Bank, GFDRR continued working with disasterprone countries to help them be better prepared for post-disaster recovery. These partnerships remain a critical enabling factor for producing guidelines and tools for conducting post disaster needs assessments and developing disaster recovery frameworks.
In Focus Stories
CROSS-CUTTING PRIORITY AREA: Disaster-Fragility, Conflict and Violence Nexus
The objectives of this New grants priority area are to embed disaster risk management (DRM) considerations into post-disaster recovery and preparedness efforts in contexts affected by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV); ensure that DRM operations are sensitive to the that FCV pose; and, through targeted research and analysis, deepen our understanding of how disasters and FCV interact and exacerbate each other.
Introduction
Compounding risks, such as conflict, instability, weakened governance, poverty, and displacement caused by FCV are affecting an increasing number of disaster-prone countries. By 2030, it is expected that two-thirds of the world’s extremely poor people will live in countries affected by FCV. Natural and economic shocks disproportionately affect these countries, and climate change is exacerbating the adverse impacts of natural hazards. The relationship between disasters and conflicts is complex and context specific. Conflict and fragility increase vulnerability and weaken governments’ capacity to respond to disasters and protect communities, and disaster risks increase preexisting tensions and the likelihood of conflict; disasters also prolong humanitarian crises, food insecurity, and fragility.
Although it is known what actions can be taken to reduce disaster risk and impacts, they are often not implemented in settings of FCV. When they are implemented, they often fail to address the complex dynamics at play. The targets set in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–30 are not being met, particularly in countries experiencing FCV. The capacity challenge delays climate and DRM financing, and investments in DRM are not prioritized, hindering disaster preparedness.
In Focus Story
CROSS-CUTTING PRIORITY AREA: Inclusive Disaster Risk Management and Gender Equality
Aligned with the Sendai Framework, the objective of this cross-cutting priority area is to foster inclusive disaster risk reduction and management across all GFDRR activitiesActive for more robust outcomes 11 and more broadly into World Bank operations and policy dialogue. GFDRR also supports projects that give marginalized groups greater voice in disaster risk management (DRM) activities as agents of change.
Introduction
Disasters disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, exposing and Active worsening existing inequalities for women, people with non-binary 19 gender identities, older persons, youth, people with disabilities, and marginalized communities. Despite the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction’s call for gender-sensitive, inclusive approaches in DRM, progress has been slow, highlighting the need for greater effort.
Aligned with these priorities, GFDRR’s 2021–2025 Strategy highlights inclusive DRM and gender equality as cross-cutting priorities in World Bank operations and policy dialogues. By advancing global knowledge, providing technical assistance, and building partnerships, GFDRR ensures that marginalized communities are better integrated into disaster-planning and resilience-building efforts. This inclusive DRM agenda is increasingly significant for the World Bank, with numerous projects now incorporating gender and inclusivity considerations. GFDRR plays a key role in shaping these initiatives through strategic guidance, technical assistance, and dedicated grant resources.
In Focus Story
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GFDRR Fiscal Year 2024 Results
GFDRR’s knowledge management, communications, and partnerships have
bolstered awareness, strengthened collaboration, and deepened the facility’s
development impacts.
Implementation of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Framework
GFDRR established its MEL framework, with endorsement by the GFDRR Partnership Council in February 2023, to promote evidence-based accountability and learning and made further progress on operationalizing this framework in 2024. In 2024, GFDRR began to implement the framework’s Evaluation Plan, commissioning and completing a midterm evaluation that assessed GFDRR’s progress in implementing its 2021—2025 Strategy and the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of GFDRR activities. The evaluation found that GFDRR’s objectives and design remain highly relevant to countries’ needs and priorities and that the current strategy has provided GFDRR with the ability to provide increasingly complementary and relevant support to World Bank partners. It also found that GFDRR complements grant finance with world-class technical and operational expertise, which is a key factor of effectiveness for the World Bank on disaster risk reduction. The evaluation found that GFDRR demonstrated many positive results against its strategic objectives but noted that the lack of defined results targets and an evolving monitoring and reporting system has hampered the monitoring and measuring of GFDRR’s achievement of its objectives.
Development Finance Informed by Grants
GFDRR makes a difference in part by providing grants that inform the World Bank’s development finance from IDA and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). Grants inform project finance by providing analytical work or advice that improves the quality of project preparation and implementation. Informing World Bank– financed projects contributes to GFDRR’s third strategic objective: for governments in vulnerable countries to have access to additional investments for scaling up disaster and climate-resilience building.
In fiscal year 2024, the World Bank approved 38 projects that were informed by GFDRR grants under the Umbrella Program, up from 24 projects in fiscal year 2023. The 38 informed projects supported 31 countries and included substantial support for IDA-eligible countries (23 projects), countries experiencing FCV (10 projects), and small states (9 projects).
The volume of World Bank development finance informed by GFDRR grants declined slightly in fiscal year 2024, primarily because a more accurate methodology was adopted. In fiscal year 2024, GFDRR grants under the Umbrella Program informed $5.12 billion in IDA/ IBRD World Bank financing, which was less than the $6.3 billion in informed IDA/ IBRD financing that GFDRR reported in fiscal year 2023 for two main reasons. First, fiscal year 2023 was an unusual year, with several very large projects approved, including $1.9 billion across three projects in Türkiye and $1 billion from two large flood-related projects in Pakistan. Second, consistent with feedback from donors, in fiscal year 2024 GFDRR adopted a more accurate approach to estimating informed financing that uses only the financing value for the subset of project activities that GFRDRR grants informed, rather than the entire project financing value.
Results from Recently Closed Grants
This section reports on results data for 71 GFDRR grants under the Umbrella Program that closed during fiscal year 2024. These grants supported 32 countries and global activities as well as regional grants for six World Bank regions, constituting $16.1 million in disbursements. Results data are gathered using a monitoring and reporting system, to which World Bank task team leaders who receive grants submit annual progress updates and completion reports when a grant ends.
Aggregate results are assessed using results indicators from GFDRR’s Results Framework, which tracks GFDRR’s contribution to its four strategic objectives from the GFDRR 2021–2025 Strategy through its theory of change (see the GFDRR Theory of Change figure on page xvii); more-detailed results are presented based on the monitoring and reporting system.
The report also indicates the alignment of closed grants with the Sendai Framework Priorities and Global Targets. Sixty-eight of the 71 closed grants delivered significant outputs; three grants were canceled with minimal disbursement, because projects they were to support did not move forward.